Darkened Petals of a Tainted Rose-Reloaded
by silentman97
Summary: Adopted from Fenix Fireblaze; 9 years after Cinder's attempted coup of Vale, life is a living nightmare for humanity. The Great Grimm War is waged once more, thousands have died, and Grimm attacks are constant. But deep in the shadows, Ruby Rose and her once-sworn enemy wage a secret war all their own. Hell bent only on destruction, Ruby will stop at nothing to have her vengance.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my adoption and continuation of Fenix Fireblaze's story by the same name. Unfortunately they have decided not to continue their story, but I've received permission to continue their story in their stead. They were kind enough to forward me the chapters along with several ideas. This is my spin on the story so it will deviate the further into it we go, This first chapter follows the same events as the original, with my own touch of blood and violence. Enjoy.**

The night had settled over the docks, enveloping it in an oblique darkness. The sound of crunching boots echoed amongst the shipping containers as Atlas's security searched desperately for their target. The clouds shrouded the moon leaving only the harsh artificial lights to illuminate the warehouse

"I think I saw something over here, quick don't lose- argh!" one soldier said pointing towards a particular cluster of darkness, before falling over clutching his now gushing neck. The result of a homemade throwing knife becoming embedded in his throat. His partner recklessly fired off several volleys toward where he thought he'd seen the knife thrown from, hitting nothing but shipping containers. She'd already long since changed her position and was watching him from her perch directly above. It was child's play to drop down onto the fool whose focus had stupidly shifted to the state of their fallen partner.

Said partner tried to choke out a garbled warning but it was far too late to be of any use. With a single jagged slash, the man discovered he would be seeing his partner again far sooner than he'd hoped. As his world faded to black, he was struck by the sight of a woman. Her eyes stuck with him the most as he felt his life fade, they were hollow pained eyes. As he watched those eyes focused on his own and he watched those silver disks fill with a dark bilious hatred that made him shiver as he felt his eyes grow heavy and his life finally dissipate. By the time the other squads of soldiers rounded the corner to support their comrades, the two had already bled out and their target was nowhere in sight.

"If she escapes and gets out of the perimeter, we're not going to have a job come sunrise! Find her you bunch of lazy idiots!" a grizzled voice yelled as several of the soldiers stood transfixed at the sight of the two corpses. His voice seemed to break their trance, and while they were far more jumpy than before, they regained some of their previous capability.

"Where'd she go?!" One particularly young soldier said, his voice unsteady and clearly frightened. He was simply too tempting and with a muffled thump half of his head evaporated into a fine red mist. The poor fool had chosen not to wear his helmet, a fatal mistake when facing someone as dangerous as her.

Ruby flattened herself against a massive shipping container, the shadows of the warehouse thick and impenetrable to all save for the beams of light cast by the flashlights of those who thought to capture her. She held her breath as she heard another pair draw closer, their steps echoing within the contained warehouse.

"Be careful." She heard a man say. "You know as well as I do what they say the lab coats did to her. If what they says true she's gonna be a real bitch to put down."

She heard a man shiver, making a noise in accompaniment to emphasize his nervous fright. It filled her cold heart with a sort of predatory satisfaction, that was right, they weren't the hunters here, she was. they were just prey.

"I heard, she's not even human anymore."

Ruby grimaced and clenched her right hand tightly, her skin's natural glow dampened down as much as she could get it, yet still showing the faintest illumination through her thin black glove that connected to a metal armguard that extended to reach a few inches above her shoulder..

"Remind me. Why the hell are we hunting her?" The scared man asked.

"Because she's a filthy rabid dog, who's gone wild and needs to be put down once and for all." The other replied.

"Are y _ou alright Scarlet, your vitals are spiking."_ Came a male voice over Ruby's earpiece.

" _She's a little busy right now."_ Another, female voice replied. " _Where are you at the moment Mr. Torchwick?"_

"I _Just took out a couple Atlesian Knight squads on the southern side of the docks, but there are plenty more on the way here. I've gotta run before they arrive. If you can hear me, I'll wait for you near the rendezvous point Red. Remember, it's rude to leave your date waiting for long."_

" _Keep nearby. Scarlet may need help extracting herself."_

" _Oh, don't worry tin can, this isn't my first rodeo, or any of ours for that matter."_

Ruby's attention returned to her immediate situation, she was keenly aware of the two men's very heartbeats as the pair neared her, mere feet away from turning the corner and spotting her.

"I know she's some crazy huntress or shit, but you're sure we can beat her, right?"

"It depends. You know, they say the freak like her have phases like the weather. She came here for a reason, and so long as we catch her quick, she'll be weak enough for us to kill her quick and easy. After all, this armor's top of the line her gun's not going to crack this stuff." to emphasis his point the soldier rapped on his armor and it certainly sounded sturdy.

 _You think that'll stop me, heh, not bloody likely._

Ruby cursed in her mind as she was forced to abort the initial attack as three whol squads met before quickly departing. She had known this would be a risky operation, but she didn't have any choice in the matter. She had needed to conduct this raid, or she would die.

Ruby crouched slightly as the two men reached the corner. Just as they came around, she sprang into action, using her semblance and taking both men out with swift aura-enhanced punches to their heads. They went down with only the sound of their skulls cracking to accompany them, leaving the Red Reaper standing over the crumpled forms of the two Atlas soldiers in full armour made to take heavy dust rounds without cracking. Perhaps they should have invested as heavily into their helmets. She staggered for a moment as suddenly a wave of weakness washed over her.

"Newsflash." She muttered to the dead men as she recovered her composure. "I hurt a hell of a lot more than a bullet."

Bending over, she took a ruined helmet, and patched the comm signal into her own radio before tossing it on the ground next to the man, there were enough bodies already, trying to hide this particular pair was a pointless endeavor.

"Penny, monitor their radios. I want to know if anyone else gets too close again." Ruby said, her tone serious and clearly expecting to be obeyed without question.

" _Yes Scarlet."_ Penny replied over the comm.

Ruby started towards the shipping containers at a dead sprint without using her semblance, stumbling a few times before leaping up several meters into the air. Jumping from crate to crate, Ruby made it to the latticework of girders on the ceiling of the warehouse, getting on top and making her way towards the window she had broken in through.

As she passed through the dark building, Ruby saw dozens of Atlas soldiers and Knight mechs all hunting desperately for her. They had a few flying drones too, but none of the soldiers thought to look up.

"They're out in full force tonight." She commented.

" _They are getting quite desperate to catch you."_ Penny replied. " _This is the third warehouse you've attacked this month."_

"You know I need this." Ruby shot back, the undertone of a growl in her voice.

" _They don't."_ Penny replied. " _They don't know what you've become. Judging from their radio chatter, they have heard somewhat of what happened to you, but they have no idea what you're capable of, or the extent of your special capabilities."_

"Let's keep it that way." Ruby growled, drawing Crescent Rose and firing a silenced round into a flyer that had gotten a little too close, knocking it several meters away before the round's delayed explosive triggered, showering the men below with shards of molten metal as they looked for Ruby in the wrong place once more. Just as quickly, she flipped it back onto her back with one hand, the immense weight of all the upgrades she had made over the years not bothering her in the least.

After several minutes, Ruby was nearing the window when Penny spoke again.

" _Your partner got out safely, but I've detected a serious problem. They've arrived."_

"Which ones?"

" _The Atlas Elites, they must have discovered you were involved and came as soon as they received confirmation."_

"Great. That's the absolute last thing in the world I need….."

Ruby moved faster, hoping to get out before Atlas's Elites could begin tracking her aura. It was all for naught, however. A voice rang out across the warehouse just before she reached the window and escaped into the night.

"Don't bother Ruby!" Came a voice that had so often been the quiet and collected one back in Beacon, it was now the voice one of Atlas's best commanders. "There's nowhere to hide!"

"Fire in the hole!" Came a bubbly voice, still as cheerful and hyper as she had been back at Beacon. Ruby saw the explosives strapped to the bottom of the girder too late, crying out in pain as they detonated, hurling her to the hard cement floor five floors down.

Ruby hit the ground hard, crying out in pain as her aura flared, barely able to take the hit with the weakened state it was in. Mechs swarmed her position right away, and she vaguely heard Penny yelling at her partner over the comms, telling him to hurry back and help her.

The mechs quickly restrained her, pinning her down by her arms and many just pointing guns at her as two soldiers walked towards her. They both wore modified Atlas armour, one painted in a deep, calm green and the other in bright neon pink. They looked sad as they stopped a meter away from Ruby, watching her with sorrow.

"Ruby." Ren said as he looked at her. "Why? Why do all of this?"

"I'm not Ruby." Ruby spat. "Ruby died six years ago!"

"Right." Ren acknowledged. "And you think calling yourself the Scarlet Reaper will erase who you are, who you were?"

"Looks who's talking Ren." Ruby spat, her voice tinged with fury as her left eye lit up like a mini bonfire, the light shining from beneath her hair. "You used to be the quiet, kindhearted one. Now you're a cold-hearted bastard that hunts people down and kills them for a godforsaken paycheck! You think there's anything in this world that'll let you get off for what you do, you think there's anything that'll wash the stench of blood off your hands?"

"You know that's not true!" Ren protested. "We-"

"Ren and I don't hurt people!" The usually bubbly Nora cried, her tone much more subdued than it was normally.

"You work for Atlas." Ruby said, glaring at them. "That dumps more than enough blood on your hands."

"You've got it all wrong Ruby." Ren said before Ruby cut him off.

"Call me Ruby again, and I skin you alive, understand? You lost the right to call me that a long time ago."

Ren sighed. "You've changed so much…."

"So now what?" Ruby demanded angrily. "What will you do with me? Turn me over to those MONSTERS again? You say I've changed, the only reason I changed is because I was abandoned by you, and everyone else!"

"They were never supposed to go as far as they did." Ren replied calmly and automatically. It seemed he'd prepared for this reaction "You've hurt too many people Ru - Scarlet. I can't let it continue. You're one of the most wanted people in Remnant. I have my orders, you're under arrest."

"Hahaha! Come on Ren, I don't remember you being such a cowardly little shit. You've got orders to kill me, no need to beat around the bush." Ruby's cackle turned midway into an animalistic snarl, her teeth bared in a defiant and openly manic grin. "Do you have the guts, I wonder? Do you have what it takes to kill an old friend, though I guess it makes sense. After all, you all chose to abandon me and leave me to rot all those years ago." At mention of this Ruby's smile became vicious and her words dripped with a hateful venom.

Ren and Nora's eyes both became hard and flinty. The years had not been kind to any of them, and the members of both RWBY and JNPR had all changed, mostly for the worst. Then again, The Second Great Grimm War would do that to any person, and they were no exception.

"You're too dangerous to let go, Ruby." Ren said, ignoring Ruby's abrupt struggles to escape as he said her name. "Nora and I will do whatever it takes to protect the four kingdoms. Everywhere you go, it seems, death and Grimm follow."

"In case you didn't notice, Grimm are goddamn everywhere now." Ruby shot back, her constant struggling finally rewarded with the sound of tearing metal as a mech's arms was sheared clean off and in doing so Ruby managed to free her left arm. Before she could utilize her newfound freedom however, three more mechs immediately dogpiled in and seized her, and one mech proceeded to fire several rounds into her stomach, depleting her remaining, meager, Aura to nothing and leaving her completely vulnerable to further attack.

"Just stop this Scarlet!" Ren begged her. "You know I don't want to do this, but I will if I have to!"

"Then let me go and stop interfering!" Ruby immediately shot back. "It's not you I want, but at this point I'd love to bury the hatchet, in your disgusting little skull!"

"You know I can't let you leave, it's simply not an option." Ren said, shaking his head sadly. "There's no other way it seems. men, finish this."

The human soldiers and Atlesian Knights all raised their guns and aimed for Ruby's chest as Ren and Nora looked away, disturbed at what was about to take place, but knowing that the girl they had been such good friends with in Beacon was gone. She'd spoken the truth earlier, she truly was gone.

Ruby Rose, as everyone knew, had died six years ago, on the day of her eighteenth birthday.

The soldiers all prepared to opened fire, targeting Ruby, who was rescued by the timely intervention of a massive explosion that knocked the mechs and Ruby to the ground. The explosion gave Ruby some minor burns and no doubt she'd feel the pain in the morning, but the blast saved her from being riddled with a hail of bullets. With that perspective she decided it was an overall positive development in the situation, especially when she saw who had caused it. A man in a white coat and black bowler hat strode confidently in through the now massive hole in the wall nearest to her, grunting as his aura took the impact of a few rounds from the recovering soldiers. He raised his cane and fired several explosive rounds tearing into the containers around the Atlas soldiers. The Symphony of explosions knocked them through the air like leaves in the wind set to a wondrous melody of death and destruction.

"You alright Red?" Roman Torchwick asked Ruby. his smile was as smug and annoying as ever, but his eyes told a whole other story. They were concern, fear and a whole host of other feelings in those eyes, it made her cold black husk of a heart skip a beat knowing he was worried over her safety.

"I'll be fine once I dose up." Ruby grunted, gritting her teeth as she stood, her muscles weak from withdrawal. "Penny, we'll need a ride out of here and you've got the Bullhead. Any suggestions?"

" _Roman successfully stole an Atlesian Paladin 370 on his way to provide support. You should be able to use it to extract the area successfully."_

Ruby gave Torchwick a weak but wry glance as he avoided the bullets and fired his own volley back, detonating yet more containers and reducing the interior of the warehouse to a burning hellscape.

"Naughty boy, stealing a battle mech and not using it immediately. You've been holding out on me"

"Well I want to risk the warranty my dear." Roman quipped as he knocked Ren and Nora down with a well-placed shot, detonating the set of barrels they'd taken cover behind. Roman barely dodged Nora's explosive reply, only forcing her back after a considerable effort on his part. "We should probably go now dear, before you have to start calling me Red too, for different reasons."

"Hit the girders, and let's get the fuck out of here." Ruby ordered Roman. To which Roman looked up and grinned

"You've got it Boss." He replied. Knocking down another group of soldiers, Roman fired several quick shots at the ceiling, slagging several sections of girders. Switching the high explosive rounds with specialized Dust rounds that were designed to eat through metallic substances. He shot several support columns and brought several of the massive metal beams crashing down, as well as bringing a huge portion of the warehouse down around them along with blocking access between the two groups it smashed several of the soldiers into a fine pulp as he turned tail and ran, following behind after his already retreating boss/partner and soon catching her due to her current injured state. Though before he departed he left a little gift behind for Atlas's surviving little pet soldiers.

Reaching the door leading out, Ruby stationed herself on one side of the massive overhead door as Roman did so with the other, no words were needed as Roman threw the door up and open and immediately dove back behind cover as bullets filled the opening, firing blindly around the corner with his cane as Ruby fired Crescent Rose, the sniper rifle's magazine switched her usual magazine to one with a glowing red strip, which signified explosive Fire Dust rounds. Yellow strips were armor piercers black was for acid and white strips were supposed to hold electric rounds.

Ruby fired until the sudden sound of an explosion could be heard,from there the bullets petered off before giving Torchwick a curt nod and ducking around the corner, bolting as fast as she could muster past various destroyed corpses that had used to be Atlas Soldiers and following Roman as he led her to a nearby alley where a Paladin was concealed in the darkness of the night. Switching her magazine back to normal armour piercing bullets with a quick command through her eye piece, Ruby blasted a particularly brave Beowolf in the head that was simply getting too close for comfort. Ruby turned to Torchwick as he looked back at her with a playful grin plastered on his face.

"Does the fine young lady wish to drive?" He asked politely, his signature smirk on his face. Even in this harsh new world, he remained the same as he had back when he had fought Ruby at Beacon, even his looks remaining relatively the same. Other than the special Dust rounds Ruby had crafted for him and being forced to refit Melodic Cudgel to allow his cane to fire the new rounds they'd created, he hadn't changed one bit in all these years. She never admit it, but there were days that his stability was the only thing keeping her sane and for some reason that never ceased to make her uncomfortable, he seemed all too aware of that fact.

"Withdrawal, jackass. You drive, I'll shoot." Ruby replied as he helped her into the back of the streamlined mech, where she got comfortable in the gunner's seat of the turret.

"Yes Ma'am." Roman said as he got into the Mech, the pod closing around him and linking his nervous system up to the metallic body.

"Where to?" Roman asked.

" _Junior's."_ Ruby replied. " _No doubt he'll pay a nice profit for this."_

"And if he doesn't feel like paying top dollar?" Roman asked.

" _Then there is always Adam Taurus. I'm sure our partners will be appreciative of a new mech to add to their little collection."_

"Pity. I wanted to keep this one." Roman pouted.

" _You can keep the next one, this one you promised we'd sell for a profit for once. Penny, did you manage to extract the full shipment?"_

" _Indeed I did, we currently possess an almost full cargo ship of various Dust types, I'm returning to Firebase Leviathan as we speak, I also captured several new Atlesian knights that happened to be on board at the time, is there any specific task you wished to assign to them?"_ Firebase Leviathan Was their central base of operations, If they'd failed this run to distract Atlas's guards, Penny would have been unable to seize the ship and transport the dust there for her later use. Even though Ruby felt the urges star, she suppressed the feelings and focused on the mission at hand. Sell the mech first, get the transfusion afterwards. Simple on paper, much harder in real life. Pulling her mind back to the task at hand, Ruby realized Penny was still waiting for her answer.

" _Not for right now, just put them on general guard duty around the base, don't want any more Grimm getting too close like last time."_ Ruby replied.

" _Affirmative!"_ Penny said her voice the usual chipper and upbeat.

" _Roman we're heading to the club, are there going to be any fireworks I won't want to miss?"_

"Just one for tonight, don't worry though, with as much dust as was still inside that place we'll be able to see it just fine from the Club.

" _In that case, what're we waiting for, get moving! I could use a drink about now."_

Roman nodded and started up the machine before heading off in the direction of the nightclub. He hadn't seen his old friend in a long time, it would be good to catch up with each other over drinks, with the success of the operation maybe they'd even get through it without Red killing any of the guards. Okay maybe that was expecting too much, but a man could dream.

 **And done. I've got some ideas as to where this story will diverge with the original that if all turns out well, I think this will turn out quite nicely. If you'd prefer to see more distinction please let me know in the reviews. Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter is primarily world-building and setting up what's to come later down the road. There also going to be a bit of drought in updates while college is in session. I'm terribly sorry, It's just the way things go, Enjoy.**

As Ruby rode along in the gunner's seat while Roman piloted the Paladin through the back alleys and sidestreets to Junior's club, she felt the insidious claws of exhaustion begin to tear at the periphery of her mind. she fought to stay awake as long she could, but Ruby soon found her eyelids growing heavy and sleep slowly taking over her body. She knew she would dream, just like she always did and she hated her dreams more than almost anything else. Ruby hated her dreams so vehemently because they always took her back to _there_. She struggled as she subconsciously moved to get as comfortable as she could. Gradually Ruby dozed off, and she realized it wouldn't be long now. The club was a decent distance from the docks and Roman had to be careful to stay clear of any police or hunter squads that might be roaming the city especially after their little stunt.

They were getting close to 'the wall', the wall was the unimaginative title or the partition that separated Cinder's territory and Vale's domain neatly down the heart of the city. According to official propaganda Cinder's part of the city outside of the wall wasn't fortified with large defensive structures and was thus supposedly unprotected from grimm attacks, and that was partially true. It was also true that Cinder had little need for walls or fortifications with the vast stocks of weapons and machines she used in lieu of the static defenses that Vale possessed. This was also ignoring her strange ability to command younger Grimm, and as a result her part of the city was actually safer, from Grimm attacks at least.

Atlas had become a surprising partner, but in retrospect it had made sense much more sense then when it was first announced. Their leaders were so tightly wed to whims of the Schnee, who didn't truly care who they sold weapons and Dust to so long as they were properly compensated for such, that the opportunity to supply both sides in a civil war and reap the profits was most likely a dream come true for many Atlesian officials. As it turned out Cinder happened to have had rather deep pockets, and so it happened that Atlas's latest tech became yet another tool in Cinder's arsenal of tricks.

There were always patrols on one side of the wall or the other, scheduled around the clock. So long as they made it across during one of the gaps in Vale's patrol schedule, of which there were several rather large ones, Roman's position would be enough to keep them out of trouble with Cinder's soldiers once they reached the other side of the wall.

Gradually reality began to peal away along with her consciousness during the arduous journey until Ruby suddenly found herself entirely encircled by a dark void. Ruby closed her eyes, and as the feeling terror began to set in she started a breathing exercise she'd learned that was supposed to help her deal with these situations. When next she opened her eyes she was back at that cursed facility all those years ago. There was her room, padded and still so blindingly white. There it was now, coated in blood and crisscrossed with her artwork just as she'd left it. As Ruby turned around she saw the waxy face of the now former head doctor of the facility, with his fat bald head reflecting the harsh light that surrounded them.

The room they were in was called The White Room. It had been her home after they'd declared her, 'unsalvageable' and left her there to die. Like clockwork the walls began bleeding that black sludge they'd injected into her veins and it became harder to tune out the screams that echoed all around her, Ruby recognized the screams as her own, no doubt recorded by that _thing_ when they'd tortured her all those years ago. The doctor smiled down at her with that sick twisted grin of his that always made her skin crawl. Slowly the doctor's features began to shift and his appearance became progressively more monstrous, he began to grow in size, bulging and warping until the thing in front of her wasn't even close to resembling a human being. Ruby glared defiantly in response, she'd lost her fear of this thing after she'd hunted down the real-life counterpart and splattered his twisted mind all over his newest little shop of horrors. With an almost silent *click* like that of a light switch, she felt the area dim and the doctor's hideous form slowly evaporated into shadow creating an impenetrable wall of darkness.

The shadows swirled around her until the area resembled the previous dark void, albeit with a bit of light than hovered around her as she stood stock still. Slowly the muffled click of high heels became audible in the distance. A silhouette became visible amongst the blackness, and Ruby sighed internally, she was well aware of what it was that was approaching her, and she also knew she couldn't do anything to stop it at this point. It grew progressively darker around her until the only light hovered directly over her head. The figure stepped forward violating her personal space and allowing the light to illuminate the figure and dispel any doubt as to their identity. This time the beast elected to wear Weiss's face, and if not for the blood red eyes and black twisted veins it would have gotten past Ruby's emotional blockade and possibly managed to stir some genuine rage within her.

It didn't speak, it had determined talking was a waste of effort a long time ago, and instead elected to scowl in frustration at the lack of a response it had been receiving as of late. Instead of staying like that though, it decided to try something a bit more forceful and with a flick of its wrist, a black tendril shot towards Ruby and struck her right between the eyes before she could react. She felt the world fade to black once more, before she realized she had once more been brought back to the facility. Now as she looked around Ruby saw she'd been brought to the observation room of the surgery ward, Ruby found herself forced to watch as the monsters in surgical uniforms down below in the operating room brought her in and proceeded to mutilate her body like the monsters in white lab coats mutilated her mind. She wasn't the only patient they'd operated on, just the only one to make it out alive. Beside her, she saw some some faceless office drones hovering around the glass watching their latest bit of depravity to see if their little 'pet' would survive this procedure too.

Ruby blinked involuntarily, purely on reflex, and now she was the figure below being operated upon, unable to react, simply being forced to watch and feel it happen, unable to do anything to stop them as she felt the scalpels cut deeply into her flesh as they began to mangle her body for whatever perverse reason. Far too many hours later, they finished with the 'procedure', and just like they had all those years ago, they wheeled her back to her room strapped Ruby into a reinforced straitjacket and left her crumpled form in the middle of her cell. Ruby was too tired to even weep anymore she closed her eyes and wished for it to all just stop. She felt the demons in her mind begin to bite and claw, an immense pain began emanating centrally from her right arm. Before her nightmare could continue, she found herself being shaken awake and a face half obscured with radiant orange hair staring at her, his face a scant few inches from hers.

"Morning, sunshine. We made it over the wall just fine, Junior and his boys are waiting on us, you need a shot before we get going?" Ruby simply nodded and squeezed his hand and he squeezed back reassuringly. Her throat was dry and as she felt toxicity in her blood increase, Besides the medicine he was the only thing that made the demons in her head be quiet when the time for a full transfusion drew near. She wasn't sure why that was, but now when every other thought involved wanting to butcher something, his presence was a godsend.

Carefully, he reached into a particular satchel which housed a box containing several doses of Ruby's medicine. The medicine was comprised of a needle filled with a glowing turquoise liquid. Ruby rolled up her sleeve and he pressed the needle into her exposed vein and depressed the plunger. Slowly the liquid made it's way through her veins and it began to spread quickly throughout her body. It felt odd, like ice was being poured straight into her bloodstream, but it was a calming sensation. afterwards she was completely herself with the beast in her head once more quiet as a church mouse, at least it was until the chemical cocktail wore off in a few hours anyway.

As he helped her out of the mech Ruby heard the chorus of clicks as almost forty some odd men trained their firearms on the pair, almost exclusively focusing their sights on her. She took it in stride, they'd need more than forty to score a serious hit on either of them, especially with how badly so many of them were shaking. Slowly the sea of red and black parted and from that gap Junior, flanked by his two bodyguards Melanie and Militia, proceeded out of the mass of thugs. Junior had weathered the transition well, with only a nasty set of scars running along his left cheek down to his neck. This was the most outwardly visible sign of his conflicts with Cinder and her people that occurred on a fairly regular basis since she'd taken over the area legally. Melanie and Militia, on the other hand, looked at first glance to be in near picture perfect shape. If it wasn't for the fact Roman had provided Junior the money to pay for the extensive surgeries to save those two, the cybernetics wouldn't be noticeable to him at all. The slight whirring as Melanie's false eyes adjusted was the only giveaway to the fact that around two thirds of the twins' bodies were now composed of extremely well-made prostheses.

While Cinder was still nominally in direct command of both the White Fang and Vale's criminal underground, She'd more or less abandoned them for the more 'legitimate' forces she became able to mobilize following her invasion and her hold over such factions had withered on the vine. She could still muster their aid when needed but there was no longer an omnipresent sense of suffocation as Cinder and her few genuinely loyal subordinates became distracted with other matters. While Vale still refused to recognize her rule, the other kingdoms came around to the idea of a weak and divided Vale soon enough. After three years, during which Vale's hunters were pressed beyond the breaking point they managed to slowly claw back the land lost to Cinders forces. In the end Vale's forces had come to a bloody standstill, with Vale within sight but eternally just out of reach. It was under this bleak bloodbath that brought the other kingdoms to institute a joint and direct intervention in what they had up to that point regarded as an internal power dispute, not worth interfering with. It was primarily the increase in Grimm that was the result of the war that brought them in.

With both of Vale's opposing forces having worn each other down for years, neither party possessed the adequate strength or resources to continue fighting, especially when faced with the massive forces arrayed against them should they attempt to do so. From there then the battle was transferred over from the battlefield to the conference room. Yet officially the war continued another year, except now it was invoices and demands lobbed over a mahogany table instead of artillery being lobbed across Vale's battle scarred landscape. Finally, a peace accord was signed and Vale was divided in two.

On one hand, Vale's government happily trumpeted how they finally regained half their capital city after all these years of struggle. On the other hand, that very same council was conspicuously silent about how it was also forced to concede half of their territory and sovereignty to what essentially was originally a ragtag pack of criminals and terrorists. Less than a week in, 'the wall' was constructed to divide the city along the areas of control. Both sides had contributed to the imposing but ultimately shoddily designed structure. They were strapped for resources as they used this pause in the fighting to primarily rearm and resupply their forces not actually address the damage the war had inflicted. It would be two years into the peace in a few months, but as the days progressed, it became clear that the chance of the treaty lasting to achieve that milestone was slim.

Junior genuinely smiled at seeing Roman once more, but that smile disappeared from his eyes as soon as his steely irises came to rest on Ruby. Melanie and Militia, the Malachite twins who had earned a reputation as exceedingly capable bouncer as well as breathtaking dancers, had a similar reaction to the pair.

"Roman, it's always good to see you." Junior said, doing his best to put on a forced jovial tone. Roman gave him a genuine smile in return and pointed towards the Paladin.

"It has been awhile hasn't it Hei, Well I'm back, and this time I come bearing gifts." Roman said motioning to the mech as Roman strode forwards without a hint of concern regarding the multitude of firearms pointed at him. Junior let out a low whistle as he approached and began looking the mech over. Melanie stood close to him while he examined the Paladin for any scratches as well as other outward signs of battle or damage. The examination took only a few minutes but it was enough time for Ruby to identify thirteen different ways to dispatch the entire forty man defense that had grown antsy as their boss continued to linger around the pristine Paladin and near the two well-known dangers. Finally satisfied with his inspection, Junior stepped back and looked at the machine one final time in approval before turning to address them.

"So, the usual Dust payment then?" Junior was slightly surprised when Roman shook his head no in response. They'd been accepting payments strictly in Dust for almost four years now. This was the first time they'd requested something different.

"I'm afraid we'll be taking Lien this time, we just pulled off a rather nice haul for ourselves and won't be needing any more Dust for a while." Junior shook off the surprise almost immediately and motioned for the guard to go retrieve the necessary funds. There was a slight bit of haggling but in the end they agreed to the sale of the Paladin for an even twenty million Lien. The exchange went off without any hitches and they parted on good terms.

While Roman had wished to stay and enjoy himself, Junior was adamant regarding the lifetime ban Ruby had incurred previously, resulting from an incident where some random partier had gotten enough liquid courage running through his veins to grab her ass and loudly proposition her while she was drinking at the bar. One thing lead to another and Roman had arrived somewhere around the time a quarter of the people in the nightclub were missing an appendage or three. Up to that point, Roman had felt that the bar was a secure enough place that he didn't need to go with her while she went out. Honestly, the whole incident had been a nightmare and Roman hadn't been able to patch things up with Junior until just recently. It wasn't even fully Ruby's fault, She'd desperately needed a transfusion and they'd been cooling down after doing the exact job that had gotten them the Dust to do just that. The poor man had just done the wrong thing at the wrong time.

It took a while to leave the city as the pair made their way through the ruined streets of southern Vale. Cinder could do many things, maintaining a proper infrastructure did not seem to be one of them. The roads were beset with potholes and various other imperfections that would make use of this road by any sort of terrestrial vehicle nigh impossible. The landscape around was rather fitting however, where the windows that weren't broken were boarded up. the sense of misery was a palatable presence here, infesting every square inch of the dilapidated area and especially taking refuge within the souls of every defeated man and woman who resided there. As they made their way further south slowly thing somehow managed to grow even worse. Where before there was a sense of defeat, now an undercurrent of malice intertwined as slowly gang signs and other graffiti became evident over the normal filth and defacement. Anti-faunus slurs were a common sight, as were the bloodstains of those foolish enough to try and write such things and fail to escape before a patrol of knights caught sight of them. The corpse of some poor soul was suspended high in the air by a lamppost. All along the road, dead bodies were suspended above by various means. Some were burned some were rotted, all echoed a sense of misery and despair.

Still the further they traveled the street remained utterly desolate. No doubt dozens of people watched them from the various dark shadows that were ever present in the small shady alley ways. Living directly under Cinder's iron heel had taught the residents of this neighborhood not to go out after curfew, and even with no obvious signs of her presence, the people had her rules engraved into their soul by this point. As they approached the outer edge of the city they were stopped by a squad of atlesian knights out on patrol. After some facial recognition software booted up, the robots examined them for several minutes before parting and allowing them to depart without any further delays.

Ruby and Roman thus began to make their way down the dirt road that was flanked on one side by rolling hills of grass, the scars of war having been sewn shut through Mother Nature's intractable ways, and on the other side the coast. this stretch of coast was seemingly untouched which served to hide the minefields that waited silently just below the waves. After walking for close to an hour they came to their destination, a small decrepit shack that connected to a small dock which housed a single rowboat. To the passing observer there was nothing about the sight that proved particularly interesting. A trained eye might notice the lone video camera still active that kept a silent vigil over the area but that was the only outward sign anyone still possessed an interest in the area. Ruby flashed the camera a signal, and from beneath the waves a beast was stirred.

Slowly it shook off the sediments and other materials that had settled on it during it's dreamless slumber and with a low unearthly groan it rose. It was a custom made transport, possessing only a third of a Bullhead's armor and no means of attack, the vessel was designed with two purposes in mind speed and the ability to function both in the air, and underwater. As the water finished sloshing off of it, the ship opened its rear doors and the two stepped inside. They took up seats in the back and no sooner had they sat down then the ship shut it's door and took off. The speed was blistering as the ocean whipped by the lone port window. More than once some air turbulence caused the whole vessel to shake ominously, it sounded like the whole thing might soon break apart into a thousand separate pieces.

The ship held though, and soon enough they were hovering above the rendezvous point while Penny's captured cargo ship came into view. On its deck was a familiar red haired man still dressed in a black coat and white mask after all these years. A massive crack now adorned the mask and the edges of the coat was frayed and tattered. Next to him stood a rather strange device, reminiscent of an iron maiden except instead of spikes, the interior was instead coated in needles. They landed close by and Ruby wasted no time in rushing into the device. The medicine had begun to wear off sooner than expected, and Ruby prefered not to try and deal with the unshakable urge to to tear Adam's face off with her teeth, that just wouldn't do for sustaining a healthy business relationship. As she clamped the door shut, the needles began to extend and do their work. The dust infused into the tubes began to filter her tainted blood through the dialyzer. This particular mixture of Dust was the most effective they'd yet found, and yet it still cost close to the equivalent of twelve million lien in Dust just for a single quarterly cleansing. As the other needles began to extend, she loosened her top and removed it so that the needles could get to the other parts of her body.

They hadn't simply poisoned her blood, oh no that would be _far_ too easy to solve. Somehow the Atlesian scientists had twisted her very Aura into producing a chemical similar to those found in what few specimens of Beowolves they'd studied in captivity. The hope had been to create something of a mutagenic agent, for whatever vague reasons had long been lost, destroyed when the facility was burned to the ground. It just so happened that following Cinder's first attack on Vale, Ruby had been a perfect candidate, comatose and unable to resist. It was months before she'd woken up for the first time.

Ruby wasn't allowed to see her friends and family, and over the course of two years they experimented on her, while falsifying letters to reassure everyone that she was doing perfectly fine. On the eve of Cinder's second attack, Roman and Neo had been dispatched to deal with her.

 **Flashback Begins**

Whatever Roman and Neo had expected when they'd come upon Red's little hidey hole, they didn't expect this to be it. The facility was perched on the top of a mountain and it's front entrance was iced shut. they'd expected at least moderate defenses, what they'd found was the distinct lack of even basic safeguards. The facility they found seemed almost entirely abandoned, the alarm didn't even sound when the blew the front entrance in. The facility was guarded strictly by a sparse few machines, with many of those being in sub optimal shape and malfunctioning. As they advanced deeper into the dark heart of the facility, they had yet to encounter another human inhabitant.

"Neo, do you think this is some kind of setup?" Neo stopped for a minute and considered the question. She signed to him in response

 _No, a setup would be more believable then this._

"You have a point." There was supposed to be around a hundred staff here, at least that was what the reports claimed.

Eventually they'd finally found her cell, close to the center of the facility. the horrific state she was in was utterly appalling. When the opened the door they caught sight of what Ruby had been up to. Ruby had taken to biting the ends of her fingers off and had drawn all along The White Room's walls in her own blood. Her hair was filthy and matted with grime and oil. It would have been child's play for the two to put her down, and perhaps it would have been the kinder of the two options. Something stayed their hands, it was might have been the pictures they saw she'd drawn with her blood. The pictures were childlike and innocent, depicting her with her friends happily being together. Roman was not an empathetic man, he'd been forced to hurt innocent people several times in the past. Those brutal jobs had bred an especially callous exterior designed to mitigate the nagging guilt that so often creeped up on him when he settled down to sleep at night. Pity hadn't stopped him before, but seeing someone who he knew, even if it was as an enemy, in such a deplorable state pulled at his heartstrings in a way he thought was impossible now.

Hey Red, it's been awhile huh?" Ruby turned and smiled at them. She reminded the both of them of the orphans that had broken and were simply hollow husks that lived in Vale's dark recesses. It was after they'd decided to spare her that he received an unexpected call, from someone whose number he'd never seen before. The voice on the other end was that of a young woman who he felt was oddly familiar.

"Hello Roman, I remember you."

"Who is this?" Roman asked.

"My name is not important at this time, what is important is that I need your help."

 **End Flashback**

That voice had turned out to have belonged to Penny, having been rebuilt and put in charge of several noncritical systems around Atlas. She'd discovered Ruby's deplorable state and been unable to directly interfere due to the constraints written into her programming. Penny had been searching for a way to rescue her friend, and was the one who had constructed the initial transfusion machine that, after the two criminals had cleaned Ruby to a point of vaguely resembling presentable, they loaded her into. The first transfusion machine was built primarily with spare mechanical parts combined with a liberal application of duct tape and prayer. The machine Ruby was in now was a vastly better built machine, this time she didn't exit vomiting up tainted blood and other vile liquids like she did the very first time. The machine she was currently in finished cleansing her a few minutes later, and as it began disposing of the tainted Dust, Ruby took a moment to collect herself. A shower fixed to the top of the machine activated automatically and sprayed down a torrent of freezing cold water that washed the rivulets of tainted blood off of her back.

The water soaked her armored coat, already utterly ruined by the confrontation at the warehouse, it seeped down and into her undershirt as well. Ruby shivered as the water abruptly cut off and the door clicked open slightly letting the air rush in. She donned the ruined coat and walked out into the frigid air that blew across unrelentingly over the cargo ship. Roman was lounging against the railing, smoking his cigar. Adam stood close by, hands in his pockets waiting for her to exit the machine.

"Enjoy the bath?" Roman asked as she stepped out and promptly began to shiver in the freezing winds.

"There's nothing quite like getting stabbed by a few hundred needles then getting freezing water poured on top of you, it's great, you should try it sometime." Ruby managed to get out before having to stop due to how badly her teeth began to chatter. Roman simply grinned wryly in response, before walking over and draping his coat over her. It possessed the residue of his heat and as the two walked up to Adam, Ruby was comforted by Roman's warmth.

Adam was flanked by a pair of guards that seemed rather disinterested in all that was going on. They still managed to fall in lockstep behind the trio as they headed under the deck without missing a beat, suggesting they weren't as inattentive as they made themselves out to be. The group arrived in the deserted mess hall that would serve as their meeting room. They sat at a table and Adam dismissed the two guards to wait outside. The three sat in silence for an indeterminable amount of time. Finally Roman broke the silence.

"Is Neo alright?" Roman asked, to which Adam nodded. "That's good to hear, We were worried after we heard about that train job going south."

"She was the only reason any of us managed to make it out of there alive. She's currently recovering back at Levithan," after a moment Adam added, "She also told me to inform you she expects an extra tub of ice cream for that job by the way."

"I've already two steps ahead of her, there's an entire freezer hidden back home full of various ice creams. I got it just for these types of occasions."

"Adam, what're you doing here?" Ruby said, breaking off the small talk that had served to alleviate a degree of the tension Adam's presence brought. Ruby wasn't a fan of beating around the bush for too long when her mind was crystal clear, such time was a precious commodity now when it was only a matter of weeks before she'd start to lose her mind to the demons that stained her soul once more. Adam was only supposed to meet with them when he had important information to provide them and Ruby had no doubt this meeting was just for that purpose. Adam's face was troubled as he relayed what his agents, people he had known back when he was the central commander in the White Fang and not subordinate to the pack of young upstarts that had formed during the Second Grimm War.

"Cinder's agents are on the move, much more active than we were expecting. The current estimates are that there's going to be a major offensive comprising a third of her forces in about a month. Cinder herself has been busy hunting for the other Maidens. Thankfully, she still hasn't had any success there or we would have heard her bragging about it by now. Our best estimates is that we have two weeks to enact the plan and be sure that all of the targets will still be within the blast radius." The silence that followed was deafening. Cinder wasn't supposed to attack for another three months, at the earliest. This unexpected acceleration threw all of their projections into disarray. Even if they could smuggle in the device now and set it up within that time-frame where were they going to get the forces to deal with the aftermath.

"Hmph, it seems that poor faunus wasn't lying while he burned, you three do seem to have a little conspiracy of your own, how adorable." A velvet smooth and darkly wicked voice suddenly spoke up. All three of them turned to see the smirking visage of Cinder Falls standing before them with her arms crossed, over her shoulder the corpses of Adam's two guards were slumped on the ground with a set of arrows protruding from their armor. "Now, while I'd love to know what it is your planning, I've got a rather _lucrative_ opportunity to offer you that I think would serve as a major opportunity for you three, if you're interested, of course."

 **Here a little bonus scene to foreshadow what going to happen in the next chapter, my way of apologizing for taking so very long.**

Deep in Atlas's territory there exists a facility not found on any official maps. The facility only housed two individuals One man, one woman. The man was a clone developed from the blood of one Roman Torchwick. Enhanced with the best cybernetics and implants that Atlas could create, on paper he was superior in all ways to his predecessor. The girl, by contrast, was cobbled together by filling in the various holes into the genetic structure of one Ruby Rose. While the man possessed only implants to amplify his abilities, the woman was a chimera, stitched together from dozens of different strands of DNA in the hopes that she wouldn't fall apart at the seams. Hundreds of miles away a small cabal of officials decided their fate.

"They aren't ready yet! I need more time to-"

"We're out of time doctor it's now or never, Cinder's not go to wait for you to put a couple pretty little goddamn bows in their hair so shut up and activate them. Do what you were paid to do." A rather coarse and gravelly voice cut through the other, meeker, man's protests. There was a slight hum of assent as the others began filing the papers to send the two to Vale's Beacon Academy, recently retrofitted and enhanced with improved defensive structures at the behest of its Headmaster. The meeker man tried several more times to warn them, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears, and eventually even he acquiesced to the others' demands. Those two were the culmination of decades of work that began long before Cinder's revolt and before Roman and Ruby's genetic makeups were chosen as the best candidates for the experiment. Soon this work would bear its full fruit, and with it the council would become known far and wide for leading the greatest advancement since the discovery of Dust. Or so they liked to tell themselves.

Were Ozpin to have known what it was Atlas was sending his way, he would have rejected the transfers immediately. Unfortunately, as he looked over the files of a Chere Vermilion and Raven Nightwing, he had a bad feeling but could find no tangible reason to deny them entry. They were apparently ex-military and would be a welcome addition to this year's class, notable for lacking many individuals with combat experience, primarily the result of a council edict that forced those with such experience to serve instead as part of Vale's Defense Force. It had been no small miracle he'd managed to retain miss Belladonna as a part time staffer. Still he'd be keeping an eye on these two, something felt off about them, and Ozpin had come to trust his instincts over the years.

 **Review Response Time:**

 **Fenix Fireblaze: Hey, good to see you, if chapter one was a major deviation this one should be in a league all it's own.**

 **Imapeppergirl0824: Thank you, I'll do my best.**

 **Sonicfan128 I hope this shed some light as to what it is that happened the why's not going to be revealed for a while longer.**

 **Nexus Bladeguard: I've gone Jaune planned for later, but in the early part I'm afraid he'll not be making much of an impact until later.**

 **Nameless Panda: You're welcome I hope it's good enough.**

 **Knight7572: Well, that's how she got to where she is, now the bigger question I feel is why?**

 **Twilight Rift: Thank you, I hope this direction is satisfactory.**

 **Until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello all, there's been a small gap in my schedule and I've managed to come up with this chapter during that time. Enjoy.**

Just moments after Roman and Ruby had departed, Junior returned to the front of his club and was surprised to see it all but abandoned. Where previously there had been crowds of people seeking relief from the stress and fears it was utterly barren. The music had stopped and the atmosphere better resembled a mausoleum. It wasn't until he looked at his bar and noticed a striking blonde-haired woman sitting there that he understood. Junior then realized that he wouldn't be making any money tonight. Junior saw some of his men begin to approach but he immediately waved them away, He didn't want to bother cleaning up the mess she'd make of his new hires. Without even turning around Yang, raised her cybernetic arm and loudly snapped her fingers repeatedly, nonverbally requesting service. Junior sighed and made his way around to the other side of the bar and grabbed a bottle and began to assess his long-time customer's current state. Her eyes downcast and unfocused with the strong scent of whiskey already on her breath. Coupled with the bloody knuckles and slightly dented metal, it was self-evident this wasn't the first club she'd been to. No doubt she'd probably sent more than a few bouncers to the hospital, and perhaps one or two to the morgue tonight. Nevertheless, like a moth tempted towards an open flame, he approached the beautiful blonde bombshell and said a silent prayer that perhaps this time he wouldn't end up having to rebuild his club from the ground up again.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it Blondie?" She looked at him, and gradually her eyes lost their milky sheen and focused in on him. Slowly the gears in her mind began turning and brought her back to the present day. Yang had been on the frontlines of the war for years, and it had taken it's toll on her. Some of the worst wounds lingered not on her body but within the prison of her own mind. Perhaps it would be better to label her a casualty, as Yang Xiao Long never truly returned mentally after the war. After a moment, a sad smile broke out across her face, and she spoke. Her voice cracked and sorrowful.

"Yeah, it's been a long time Hei. I still remember the first time we met. I nearly brought the whole building down, didn't I? Heh heh, I miss those days, I miss them a lot." Junior nodded and offered her a glass to which she gladly accepted. Junior poured a clear liquid into the glass, to which Yang frowned in disapproval at the lack of additional spirit. Nonetheless, she swallowed the nearly full highball glass all in one gulp and scowled. "I'm pretty sure that was just water you gave me."

"That was eight ounces of eighty-four proof genuine high-grade Atlesian vodka Blondie."

"Like I said, water. God knows those bastards couldn't handle a _real_ drink." Junior chuckled, and Yang smiled despite herself. "Come on, drink with me. I look pathetic drinking alone." Junior sighed but couldn't help himself as he grabbed a pair of bottles filled with high-proof liquors. He mixed the two spirits together with a decent portion of pineapple juice and topped it with a little umbrella for her. He simply grabbed a bottle of beer for himself, nothing special, but it would suffice.

"There you are, one Blonde Bite for you and a nice bottle of beer for me on the house." Yang snorted in derision as she played with the little umbrella.

"Goddamn lightweight. You'll die of old age before you get a buzz from that shit. I don't remember this drink. Is it new?" Junior nodded.

"Came up with it after you burned down my club the second time. Was planning to offer it to you the next time you rolled around, but well…" Yang's face darkened and cracks began to form in the glass. Yang was about to speak, her eyes tinted scarlet, but she stopped herself and changed the subject.

"You look like shit, guess working for that bitch didn't work out so well huh?"

"We all knew that the bitch would try and screw us someday, Blondie. Just happened it was 'obey or die' until very recently so we didn't have any choice," Junior replied. Yang made a vague gurgle of disagreement as she consumed about a half of her drink in one go.

"C'mon, all of you against just her? You'd have won and saved us all a lot of trouble." Junior shrugged noncommittally.

"Maybe, as it stands now, we did win, sort of. It cost me half my men, not to mention I got this pretty little parting gift, but my boys and I are officially an independent venture, beholden to none." Junior said motioning to the scars on his face before taking a swig. As the cold bitter taste ran down his throat, Junior was reminded of when he founded his very first club. He, Roman and Neo had consumed half a dozen or so bottles of this stuff to celebrate its founding. At the time, they genuinely believed this was going to be the ticket to get out of the poor house, and good times were just around the corner. It turned out that such prosperity was merely an illusion. It fell apart within a year's time. They had been saving up to buy a license, but the police had raided the club before they could. They leveled such heavy fines that the whole thing just went under so they had each found new ways to survive. He became an information broker; Roman returned to his career as a thief, and Neo a psycho for hire. He turned and saw Yang studying his face intently.

"You got serious all of a sudden. Everything alright there Hei?"

"Yeah, just some old memories…" Junior then gulped down the remainder of the drink in one large swig and set his empty bottle aside. "So, what brings you back here after all this time Blondie?"

"I need a place to stay, so I'm going to be staying at your place for a bit." Junior had just gotten a second beer. Had he been drinking it, he would have spewed all of the contents in his mouth over his bar. Instead, he elected to merely look at her incredulously. Junior concluded he must have simply heard her wrong.

"I'm sorry Blondie, could you run that by me one more time?"

"I'm slumming with you while I'm in town." She turned to him and smiled mischievously, the first expression not tinged with regret or sadness. "What, don't tell me you have a problem with _this_..." she said motioning to herself with an exaggerated flourish "...wanting to stay over at your place do you?" Junior was silent for a moment and debated his options. finally he elected to go with the best one he could think of.

"Okay, care to tell me why?" Junior saw her slump forward towards the bar and adopt a more somber expression. Not the response he was expecting or hoping for. Still, he wasn't flying across the Club, so there was that.

"It's… It's Ruby's birthday tomorrow. I always try to go visit her memorial, but I heard the ice skank and whoreball are gonna show up too. I figured you'd be as far removed from those two as anyone, and maybe you'd help me visit when neither of them was around."

"Whoreball? You mean your partner; the cat faunus?" Junior asked Yang smirked bitterly at the question.

"She hasn't been my partner in a _long_ time. She was always running away. Eventually, she ran off with the ice bitch when my life was falling apart and I haven't seen her since. It's funny, I ended up realizing whenever things went to shit, she'd turn tail and run. I came up with her "nickname" then, and it kind of stuck in my head." Yang's eyes became unfocused as the memories returned sharp and painfully. She shattered the glass in her hands and ground the jagged shards against her palms, only for her aura to flare up and protect her hand from incurring any significant damage. Junior grabbed her hand, and while she didn't release the shattered glass fragments, Yang stopped driving the razor sharp shards into her flesh.

"Easy there, Blondie." However, Yang wasn't listening. She was off in her own world now.

"You know that skank never called and told me why, after all these fucking years, not once. She left me alone all those years ago, after she'd promised me she wouldn't leave me ever again. We were fighting together to capture some godforsaken farm, and one morning I wake up and find a note. The fucker didn't even have the balls to tell me she was leaving to my face!" With this Yang slammed her fists on the bar and managed to create a pair of small but sizable craters on the bar's surface.

"Blon-, Yang, stop, it's going to be fine, I promise." Junior attempted to avert her downward cycle and tensed when she turned towards him. He fully expected to be launched into the stratosphere, or at the very least get sent through the roof of the club. Instead, she buried her face in his chest and cried, which still managed to knock the wind out of him. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around her as Yang sobbed into his chest and nearly shattered his spine with how hard she was squeezing him. For a while they remained in that position, neither one really sure where to go from there. After what seemed an eternity, Yang spoke once more her voice hoarse and cracked.

"No, it won't. It'll never be okay." Yang said quietly. Junior, lacking a good response, elected to merely continue holding her. After a while Yang managed to regain her composure and the two separated. They returned to their original positions adjacent to one another and settled into a comfortable silence. Eventually it was decided to head off, so Junior got one of his men to pull the car around and, with Melanie acting as a chauffeur, the two inebriated souls arrived safely at Junior's residence. While Junior was still sober enough to walk under his own power, Yang needed help staying on her feet. It took both of the malachite twins to carry Yang in and set her down on the couch. Ever the gentleman, Junior had her moved to the bed and he elected to sleep on the couch instead. The Twins had their own rooms and retired to them, allowing Junior to reminisce on the night's talk without undue interruption. Could they really have won? The idea that maybe, all of this could have been prevented made his stomach turn and his scars ache as if they'd been inflicted mere moments prior. Junior eventually settled into a fitful slumber, as he wrestled with the doubts that single possibility awoke within him.

Across the way, situated in Beacon's recently rebuilt library Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee poured over the new evidence they'd collected over the preceding year. Their mission was simple, find where they've screwed up. Where had the signs been, how could they have failed to see the appalling state their team leader and friend had been kept in. Where was their blindspot? They'd done their best to find all the information they could, and come up with almost nothing about the project itself.

"You know we should get some sleep sometime, we're dedicating a memorial to them in the morning." Blake said, Weiss snorted in response and returned to examining the reports she'd acquired from Atlas. Ruby was connected to a program that fed into Atlas's black ops division, making locating pertinent files and dossiers a hassle. Nevertheless Weiss had found the dossier on the head researcher, a Dr. Ryan. The file marked him as deceased, and had the image of his headless body included to confirm it. The image made Weiss sick, she'd developed something of a aversion to blood after she'd seen the videos of her partner, ex-partner she reminded herself, painting with her own blood.

Leaked by the anonymous hacker 'Asimov', the tapes were recordings from the facility that had housed Ruby and documented the excesses and abuses done repeatedly to her best friend. There existed a single question in Weiss's mind after seeing them, why? It was a question she had yet to find a satisfactory answer to. The videos were a deep blow to morale during the war, jokes circulated about how if they were too good they'd get to share a cell with Vale's hero after the war. Defections were rampant among the rank and file soldiers following the videos. Cinder had seized upon this sentiment and used it as part of a propaganda campaign that had inclined enough citizens to not oppose her rule and quash the beginnings of rebellion to her autocratic rule in the bud. Videos followed months later of Ruby fighting alongside Cinder's forces and leading forces in the field. To this day 'Asimov's' identity was unknown but it was well known that new videos would still occasionally appear supposedly from them. Typically the videos would portray the latest act of crime or terror committed by Ruby, often in conjunction with Roman Torchwick or Neo, in a more positive light.

"You know, I heard she's been attacking warehouses recently." Blake said as she stretched and was awarded with the sound of various cracks and pops as she attempted to shake off some of the stiffness she'd acquired from sitting there so long. Perhaps we should stake out the docks tomorrow."

"You know you're going to have to talk to her at some point Blake." Weiss said glancing up from the dossier, and saw Blake flinch in response.

"I know, it's just… What am I supposed to say to her?" Blake responded, playing nervously with a strand of hair

"Before or after she's thrown the closest heavy object at your head?" Weiss joked, to which Blake glared in response.

"I'm serious we haven't talked since the war, she most definitely hates me."

"Come on, I'm sure Yang doesn't hate you, after she calmed down she probably understood that you had a good reason for why you couldn't tell her where you were going. If we hadn't gone and destroyed those files the lives of dozens of our agents behind the frontlines would have been at risk."

"But I never had the chance to explain to her. I just left a note and then I never got the chance to see her afterwards." Blake said, the guilt gnawing away at her.

"I know the feeling, believe me, I do." Weiss said softly, the memories of the first time Weiss had seen Ruby in three years and the disaster that had turned out to be. Shaking her head and dispelling the memories, Weiss came to a conclusion she knew was the right one, though Blake would undoubtedly oppose. "Well that settles it then, tomorrow you're going to have a face to face with your partner, whether you like it or not." Weis said resolutely .Blake's bow began to twitch nervously at the prospect. Before Blake could respond, the faint creak of a door echoed loudly through the otherwise silent room. The two huntresses turned and were greeted to the sight of Jaune Arc, standing awkwardly in the doorway. By all outward appearances Jaune had weathered the war quite well. He had grown and had developed a rather charming if distant personality. Outside of his work was a whole other matter, however. Outside of work Jaune did not exist, if Jaune wasn't working he was sleeping, he took his appointment to the head of Vale's Defense Force with the utmost dedication. He was dressed formally with a grey suit and orange tie. He seemed somewhat uncomfortable as he approached them. Nervously, Jaune rubbed the back of his head and began to speak.

"Uhh, Glynda sent me to get you two, there's going to be a ceremony and she'd like you to attend." Weiss sighed and put the folder down on the table. She stood and proceeded to fall in line alongside Blake as Jaune led the way to the dining hall. The halls felt foreign and alien to Weiss as much of the school had needed to be rebuilt and they'd completely changed the layout when they had done so. Gone were the large spacious halls, there now existed an almost claustrophobic atmosphere as the hallways were short and created a labyrinth of confusing passages with a inordinately low ceiling Weiss could have easily run her hand along. For whatever reason they also took away a great deal of light sources making shadows seemingly dance in the periphery of one's sight.

There was no way Yatsuhashi would've fit inside these cramped halls, the thought of him attempting to do so brought a faint smile to her face. As she thought back to team CFVY and the ultimate fates that befell them, her smile evaporated. Fox had died in the early stages of the war and Coco had been crippled in that same battle. Yatsuhashi would go on to lose left arm and left eye in an ambush while Velvet ended up losing her right leg to a landmine not long afterwards. This took them out of combat for the scant few months that remained in the war. They'd survived, however, and Weiss had even been one of the bridesmaids to Velvet's and Yatsuhashi's wedding just last month. It was a beautiful ceremony and Coco had delivered a wonderful speech at the reception, but the sorrow that seemed to permeate everyday life lingered over the proceedings like a vengeful spectre. They had taken up teaching at Signal and had gained a reputation for being strict but utterly adored by their students.

Weiss was brought back to the here and now when Jaune opened a slightly more ornate door then the others they'd passed and they entered the Dining Hall. Unlike the hallways, that were drab and lacking any real color, Beacon's Dining Hall was resplendent and was practically a kaleidoscope of various vibrant colors. There existed two distinct groups that Weiss saw within the faculty that was assembled. The first group was the Old Guard, comprised of those faculty and and former students like herself who present before Beacon's destruction, and the new blood, comprising those employed following the peace treaty. The frankly gaudy decorations and other bits of extravagance made the Old Guard visibly uncomfortable, they hadn't won the war so why should they receive such finery when most citizens struggled to survive day to day following the war? The new employees, however, seemed to be right at home here as if it was only natural that they receive the finest of goods money could buy, they'd been the ones to put their lives on the line. The ceremony was blessedly short, some fat ball of congealed scum commonly referred to as a politician gave a speech welcoming the students to Beacon Academy and wishing them the best of luck in their path to becoming Hunters and Huntresses. He quickly waddled away and for once Blake made an effort to catch the man's name. He was by far the shortest speaker they'd had, and it would pay to know a politician who wasn't deeply and devoutly in love with the sound of their own voice.

After that the students ate while Weiss and Blake made their way out into the courtyard. They sat together by the fountain, looking up at Remnant's shattered moon. Weiss saw a lone Bullhead pull into dock and decided to ask Blake about it.

"Those are our two transfers from Atlas. Chere Vermillion and Raven Nightwing, I remember having to file their paperwork. There was something with the documents that ended up delaying them, they were supposed to arrive this morning but the flight was delayed." As Weiss watched the Bullhead head into the hangar, she felt compelled to go and see the new transfers herself.

"Come on, let's go welcome them, since it seems they've missed the festivities." Weiss said, and Blake shrugged in assent and followed after her. They arrived just as the Bullhead departed, having deposited its two passengers. They were a man and woman, both had black hair and the man was noticeably taller than the woman were dressed in red camo for some inexplicable reason, the design certainly wasn't Atlas's standard pattern. The man, Raven, saw the two and began making his way towards them, carrying two rather large suitcases that probably contained the luggage that wasn't sent to Beacon ahead of their arrival. His stride was orderly and mechanical, and despite the obvious weight of the suitcases he seemed unencumbered by the weight. His partner, on the other hand, bounced rapidly around her solemn teammate like a tightly wound spring, taking in every little detail with a look of absolute wonder and joy. Weiss could soon pick up the conversation the two were having as they approached.

"Raven, can you believe it, we're going to be hunters!"

"Yes, Chere just as I could believe it the last time you asked."

"But, but I mean… We're at Beacon Academy, _the_ Beacon Academy! You know that mom used to go here." Weiss could feel the excitement radiate from the girl and she found it rather infectious. She and Blake were both smiling in amusement at the beleaguered young man as he arrived in front of them.

"Really, who was she then, perhaps we crossed paths." Blake said. Chere seemed to notice for the first time it wasn't just her and Raven and immediately clammed up. When Weiss extended her hand in greeting, Chere immediately backed up and put Raven between her and the two hunters. Raven gave her a reassuring smile then turned and addressed Weiss and Blake.

"Umm, hello Miss Belladonna, Miss Schnee. I'm sorry we're late, there was a delay in the departure times so we ended up delayed. There aren't any issues are there?" A slight hint of nervousness worked it's way into his voice towards the end. Blake took note of his tone before responding.

"No, it's alright, you missed the ceremony but you were excused from it once we were notified about the delays." Blake said. Raven nodded in appreciation and then turned his head when his partner whispered something into his ear. He whispered back into her ear, and the girl seemed to shrink even further behind him. Seeing the two eyeing his partner, Raven spoke on her behalf.

"I'm sorry, Chere's just a little shy around new people." he said, plastering a well crafted but unmistakably fake smile on his face. His demeanor also changed, and he quickly attempted to end the conversation abruptly. Allowing them to depart, Weiss felt there was something about those two that certainly seemed off, but couldn't quite determine why that would be the case.

"They're certainly hiding something." Blake noted, watching as Chere bolted towards one of the dorms at incredible speeds, only to do an about face when Raven told her their room was located in the opposite dorm.

"Yes, But I doubt we'll get anything from the girl, at least not with her partner." Weiss said coldly. Years of war and the pain inflicted by repeated betrayals had made Weiss wary of anyone keeping secrets from her.

"Let's head back to the library, I need to check something." Blake said and began making her way back towards the Library's front entrance.

"Oh, care to enlighten me?" Weiss said falling behind her.

"Chere was trying not to be heard, but I managed to hear what she asked him." Blake said, Weiss raised an eyebrow intrigued.

"She said, 'Do these people know mom?' as far as I know there is no mention in her file of her mother having ever visited Beacon, and she seemed more scared when he said 'Yes'. Blake said, "So I'm going to look through Beacon's attendance records, if the files we were given about them are false it's possible there could be a family resemblance."

"I think I might just stick around, it's not as if there's anything I'm in any hurry to return home to." And so until dawn the two whiled away the hours going through the information they had on both Ruby and on two of Beacon's newest arrivals.

By the time they arrived at their rooms, Chere was nearing a panic attack. Once they were inside with the door closed, Chere was flitting from one side of the room to the other, quivering in a state of complete panic. Raven managed to catch her a she flashed past him and wrapped her in a protective hug. Her breath was unsteady and she was unable to calm the tremors that rocked her body as he held her still.

"Chere, calm down it's going to be okay. I'm right here, everything's going to be just fine." The tremors began to slow in frequency and after a few deep breaths Chere managed to stop them altogether. they remained like that for an indeterminate time, finally She spoke softly.

"Raven, I'm scared. I mean I knew there'd be people who knew mom, but I just… It scared me." Chere said, her voice unsteady and accelerated.

"I know, you shouldn't be, though. Nothing's going to get to you without going through me first."

"Raven, could you read some of the fairy tales again?" She said, her voice still subdued and muted.

"You know I hate reading fairy tales." Raven said, he found himself looking down and staring into a pair of enrapturing silver orbs and ever so slightly quivering lip. That sight made him sigh as he found himself caving into her demands once again.

"Okay, fine. I'll read you a story, but only after you've gotten ready for bed." Raven said and let her go. He couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth spread through his chest as he saw her face fill with an innocent joy

"Okay!" Chere replied jubilantly, happy with her success, her earlier trepidation forgotten for now. She was a little unsteady and fell back into his lap the first time she tried to stand, but she regained her balance and managed to stand on her own the second time. As Chere prepped for bed Raven popped open their weathered suitcases and began putting their clothes and other equipment away. Amongst their possessions was a particularly worn book that he set aside, the pages were dog-eared and worn. The cover was faded and almost indiscernible, but it was an image he knew by heart. Raven ran his fingers lightly over the cover and the original image flashed clearly into his mind. It was the visage of a prince on a beautiful white steed, clad in sparkling armor appearing positively angelic. Raven still remembered the feelings that image evoked when he was a child, how he'd wanted to be that knight in shining armor. He scowled as he reflected on how that particular dream had panned out. After her he showered and got ready himself. He came out and saw Chere leafing through the book, careful not to tear the old yellowed pages. He sat down on the bed and she handed him a particularly worn section, her favorite story. As he rested his head on the pillow, he felt Chere cuddle up close to him, just as she'd done when they were younger.

"You know, we're getting a little old to be doing this…" Raven said as he was conspicuously aware of the way her body was pressing against his, to which she was innocently oblivious to, she hummed in disapproval at his statement.

"I don't care." She said, nestling even closer to him. Raven sighed, but focused on the book and let the matter be dropped. He hadn't convinced her to be less touchy back at the facility, nor the ride over to Beacon, perhaps it was better simply to let sleeping Beowolves lie. Focusing his eyes on the old script he began reciting the story he'd told her a thousand times and knew by heart.

"Once upon a time…" And so he told her the stories of all the wondrous hunters of legend. As she drifted off to sleep Raven felt the subdermal autoinjectors implanted injected Melatonin directly into his bloodstream. As he drifted off to sleep, he felt a sense of tranquility come over him. they were both safe, if only for tonight.

The Bullhead was deadly silent as the three occupants sat saying nothing to one another.. Two of them were waiting to hear the third's response to the offer before saying anything. While it definitely solved some of their earlier problems, the idea of working directly under Cinder again made them all uneasy. They arrived at levithan's first checkpoint and were cleared to enter the second gate before Ruby decided to render her verdict.

"We're doing it." Both Roman and Adam were shocked, given Cinder and Ruby's tumultuous relationship, they'd expected her to tell Cinder exactly where to shove her offer.

"You sure about this boss I mean-" Roman began to say, but Ruby interrupted him.

"Yes I'm sure. With this we solve the manpower problem and we know Cinder at least will be in the blast radius. If that forces back the plan a few months, well that's the price we'll pay." They cleared the second checkpoint and connected to the main facility. With a slight hiss the doors opened and they exited the craft and made their way to the lavish Living Quarters that Leviathan was equipped with. In the center was a massive TV that was always blaring some slasher film whenever it was Neo had the run of the facility. Speaking of which, the petite woman surprised Roman from behind and attached herself to his back.

"Ahh, hello Neo I was wondering where you'd gotten off to." Ruby turned and saw Neo contort around him to where she was now straddling him from the front and her legs were wrapped around him and grinding against him in a wholly inappropriate manner.

 _I missed you too, I thought it over and I have a better idea of what I want for saving your pretty red cow and his useless friends._

"Bull, Neo. Bulls are male, Cows are female." Adam said, quickly making his way to his room and away from the firestorm Neo was intentionally attempting to stoke. Ruby grabbed the collar of Neo's jacket and attempted to pull her off, but Neo clung stubbornly to Roman and refused to let go. Neo did, however, stop feeling up Roman's chest and instead directed her attention to Ruby. Contorting her spine while using Roman as a pole upon which to anchor herself, Neo bent over backwards to face Ruby and was disappointed to see she wasn't fuming in jealousy as she'd hoped. Had Ruby not received treatment on the ship she would probably be trying very hard to resist the urge to tear Neo's head off. As it was, Ruby simply flicked her nose, like scolding a dog that couldn't resist it's more base urges. Ruby then went into the kitchen and procured a wine of acceptable vintage. Ruby entered back into the living room with a pair of glasses for Neo and Roman. Neo now had a disappointed scowl on her at seeing her entertainment for the night quashed. Neo dismounted Roman and took the offered glass. She sniffed the wine and satisfied with the smell downed about a third of the glass in a single gulp.

 _So, how've you two been?_

"Pretty well, we've kept ourselves busy stealing Dust, very nostalgic really." Roman said. Neo good-naturedly punched him in the shoulder

 _And you didn't invite me? For shame Roman, leaving me all alone while you two are off having fun_.

"If you didn't feel the need to pose the bodies of the people we end up killing I'd let you come along more often." Ruby said, drinking straight from the bottle.

 _Oh come on, don't judge because I've found a new hobby! Besides you were rolling on the floor when I shoved that commander's severed head up his own ass._ Neo said defending her art. Roman chuckled and Ruby cracked a smile at the memory of that particular mission.

"Neo, we need a favor." Ruby said taking another swig from the bottle.

 _Sure._

"Not even going to ask what the favor is?"

 _Nah, you know me, I'm a big fan of surprises._

"It involves Cinder." Ruby said, only to see Neo hold up her hand, asking her to stop.

 _Nope, nope, nope. I want to be surprised, stop giving me details._ Neo signed, to which Ruby grinned impishly in response.

"Well, if you hate spoilers so much, then excuse me. Roman did you know Cinder just hired all four of us to teach at her own version of Beacon?" Ruby said, her smirk now stretching ear to ear. Roman opted out of Ruby's reciprocation of Neo's earlier antics and instead attempted to retreat to the kitchen and the safety it offered him. His escape was thwarted by Neo who seized his arm as he passed and with a powerful tug sent him tumbling onto the couch with her.

 _Don't think you can get away from here, I've been missing you and we need someone to make sure we don't end up using the TV as a weapon like last time._

"You know you two could try not devolving into a slugging match and we could just enjoy a pleasant night of wine and conversation…" Roman suggested wistfully, to which Neo frowned in disapproval and Ruby mirrored the look.

 _Okay, You get to be the stern headmaster who everyone hates, we get dibs on being the cool teachers who let them get away with all kinds of shit that you then have to deal with._

"Hey, I just don't want to end up cleaning the messes you two make."

"Actually Roman you only clean up 63.2 percent of the fallout of their fights, not that I'm keeping meas-*hic*," Penny said, communicating via a set of speakers installed throughout the facility.

"I clean up at least sixty-five percent, besides that means I still clean the majority of their messes up, so some parity is all I'm asking for." Roman said from the couch, not even bothering trying to sit up right as Neo held his arm in a vice-like grip and didn't feel like wasting the effort.

"At least a third of their fights are over you Roman, perhaps parity could be achieved if you weren't quite so divisive." Penny replied, Roman frowned and motioned with his free arm to Neo.

"You make it sound like I'm the problem here instead of the rope that they're having their little tug of war."

 _A game which I am totally winning by the way._ Neo signed triumphantly.

"Hold on." Ruby then downed the last of the bottle of wine. "Okay I'm drunk enough for round two. The hell do you mean you're winning, you insane egotistical killer midget." Ruby stopped for a moment, then threw her hands up in triumph. "Woo! I probably can't walk a straight line but I can say egotistical prop-, corre-, I said it right!" Ruby whooped with joy, the excitement was infectious and soon enough everyone was laughing along at her intoxicated giggles

 _God you're a lightweight. In all seriousness I missed you guys, and it's good to be back together. Oh and Roman, if you stick me with Adam again while you're off stealing Dust with everyone else, I'm going to tattoo 'Property of Neo' on you, possible on parts of you, depends on if I'm really in the mood or not._ Neo told Roman, he sighed while Ruby attempted to decipher why it was Neo was throwing her hands around like that.

"Okay, okay, I promise. Now can I have my arm back, It's not easy to drink like this." Roman said wiggling his seized arm for emphasis.

 _...Fine_ At which Neo released his arm reluctantly and allowed him to reposition himself on the couch. This persisted for several hours, with Penny and Roman as the referees. and just like each time previously it devolved into the two throwing heavy objects at each other, this time at least they only lost the couch and the TV was preserved. As the morning approached Roman and Penny were still awake while Neo was sleeping and Ruby was passed out on the floor. Roman was busy sweeping up the shattered remnants of what was once a rather nice ottoman, his favorite in fact, Penny came up behind him with her new body and spoke to him.

"So, Ruby mentioned that you all will be teachers. Can you elaborate on what it is exactly you will be doing?" Penny asked while Roman bid the spirit of his long-suffering footrest farewell and hoped it was in a better place now. Turning to Penny, he gave a brief recollection of Cinder's offer.

"Effectively Cinder's taking Beacon's concept and stealing it wholesale." During the war, Cinder had a superior force in regards to numbers, but the majority were trained like shit, and even augmented with Grimm auxiliary units, victory was uncertain when hunters were present on the battlefield.

"Why the change in tactics, she nearly succeeded in her second assault without varying the strategy in the slightest." Penny said.

"The key word there is 'almost'. To her, both of those invasions were failures in the sense that she didn't achieve what she wanted. So, she's figured if the hunters were so critical to beating her back, best to have some of her own." Roman turned and leaned his weight against a wall and studied her for a moment. Penny had designed her new body to better resemble what her age should be and by his estimation, she'd done alright in realizing the concept. She was almost eye level with him and her orange hair reached the midpoint on her back. While he clashed with her on more than one occasion and never hesitated to crack a joke relating to her artificial nature, Penny had realized he still saw her as equal to the others within his inner circle. In return Penny assigned a disproportionate amount of menial tasks for Roman to accomplish, and despite his repeated and vehement protests he never slacked off or failed to do them in a timely manner, while she kept informed on all manner of things going on in Remnant. It was an understanding, perhaps even a camaraderie if one felt charitable. "Do you know where the facility will be to train them?" Penny asked.

"It'll be inside of Cinder's controlled section of Vale. It's meant to be a sort of middle finger to Beacon, and the gesture only works if they can see it." Roman replied.

"Are you the only staff at the facility?" Penny asked.

"Sort of, we'll be the ones to pick the staff, Cinder's being surprisingly hands off with the project." Roman said, shrugging.

"So that she can keep hunting the other Maidens." Penny surmised.

"Exactly." Roman nodded. "We'll be getting the first set of recruits soon so we're going to need to find staff fast, Adam knows a few people and I have a couple contacts who might be interested."

"I have several dossiers of former Vale and Atlesian soldiers who could serve as instructors for the facility, does it have a name?"

"Inferno, a bit dramatic but eh, no worse than shade academy I suppose. Send the dossiers to my scroll I'll look them over in the morning."

"Already done, and Roman?" Penny said hesitantly.

"Something wrong?" Roman inquired.

"Just be careful, I've got a bad feeling about...All of _this_." Penny said, giving voice the sense of dread that had eaten away for years, but had grown far worse as of late. Roman seemed to contemplate her words for a long moment, and in that moment he seemed decades older than he had appeared moments before.

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way too. We've seen and done so many bloody and awful things, and now when everything's finally falling into place, we get cold feet." Roman reached into his pocket and produced a cigar. Penny helpfully provided him a light and responded.

"It's too late for us isn't it?" She asked. Roman paused to enjoy the taste of his cigar, then replied.

"It was too late a long time ago, Now we're just along for the ride." Roman said,and went off to get some much needed rest. Penny stood alone watching him depart, before taking his words to heart. The dye had already been cast, wasting processing power worrying about it would only prove to be unproductive. Even so, despite her best efforts the unease lingered, and she doubted it would ever truly go away.

 **And done… Well, I'd like to say the first half or so of this was an answer to part of knight7572's review. After reading it the scenes just sort of burst into my head and so I wrote them down. To respond to your second question, the answer will come in time but I'd rather not give too much away.**

 **I'm curious how this depiction of Neo sits with everyone, I was going for more of a trickster or gadfly archetype, and I'm wondering how well that came through.**

 **And now on to the other Reviews:**

 **Nameless Panda: Thanks, I hoped you liked the update.**

 **Cipher111996: Thank you, I hope this chapter also meets your approval**

 **Fenix Fireblaze (Guest): Thanks, can't be sure if that's the real you or not, but personally I think from what you had planned I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit.**

 **Until next time.**


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